Pilot Study: Moving Towards a Scalable Intervention for Postgraduate Communication Skills Training
Background: Communication skills are foundational to the practice of medicine and training to build them is recommended. Serious illness communication skills (SICSs) teaching is inconsistently and sparsely taught in postgraduate training and residents report feeling inadequately trained to have diff...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Mary Ann Liebert
2024-10-01
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| Series: | Palliative Medicine Reports |
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| Online Access: | https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/pmr.2024.0006 |
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| author | Warren Lewin Helen James Nikolina Mizdrak Ben Kaasa Shira A. Strauss J. Thomas Toguri |
| author_facet | Warren Lewin Helen James Nikolina Mizdrak Ben Kaasa Shira A. Strauss J. Thomas Toguri |
| author_sort | Warren Lewin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: Communication skills are foundational to the practice of medicine and training to build them is recommended. Serious illness communication skills (SICSs) teaching is inconsistently and sparsely taught in postgraduate training and residents report feeling inadequately trained to have difficult conversations. The authors developed an e-module demonstrating high-yield communication skills from a known evidence-based training program to standardize core SICS teaching and questioned how using it before skills practice impacted comfort and preparedness for residents to complete advance care planning (ACP). Methods: Family medicine residents at an academic hospital in Toronto, Canada, completed a novel e-module that replaced a typical didactic-lecture introducing core SICS relevant to ACP conversations. Residents then discussed the skills, followed by practicing them deliberately in a structured role-play simulation with feedback by trained facilitators. Residents completed pre- and post-intervention attitudinal surveys. Results: Residents preferred a combination of learning modalities and welcomed online and virtual teaching methods for learning SICS. Residents reported higher levels of preparedness for engaging in ACP, delivering serious news, and discussing goals of care post-intervention. Residents showed more interest in discussing ACP post-intervention but questioned feasibility for doing so in busy ambulatory clinics. Conclusion: Scalable time-efficient teaching strategies are needed to fill a known education gap. This study demonstrated benefits of incorporating brief e-module learning into residents’ preparation for SICS training using deliberate practice simulation training. The online, interactive virtual training improved resident readiness and comfort for ACP, an area often overlooked in medical education. Moreover, it provides an evidence-informed standardized tool for clinician teachers to seamlessly incorporate into their teaching practices. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-38672c490d71461bb837c0e41c30f9df |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2689-2820 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-10-01 |
| publisher | Mary Ann Liebert |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Palliative Medicine Reports |
| spelling | doaj-art-38672c490d71461bb837c0e41c30f9df2025-08-20T02:59:00ZengMary Ann LiebertPalliative Medicine Reports2689-28202024-10-015129330010.1089/pmr.2024.0006Pilot Study: Moving Towards a Scalable Intervention for Postgraduate Communication Skills TrainingWarren Lewin0Helen James1Nikolina Mizdrak2Ben Kaasa3Shira A. Strauss4J. Thomas Toguri5Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.Division of Palliative Care, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada.Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.Toronto Western Hospital Family Health Team, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada.Toronto Western Hospital Family Health Team, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada.Background: Communication skills are foundational to the practice of medicine and training to build them is recommended. Serious illness communication skills (SICSs) teaching is inconsistently and sparsely taught in postgraduate training and residents report feeling inadequately trained to have difficult conversations. The authors developed an e-module demonstrating high-yield communication skills from a known evidence-based training program to standardize core SICS teaching and questioned how using it before skills practice impacted comfort and preparedness for residents to complete advance care planning (ACP). Methods: Family medicine residents at an academic hospital in Toronto, Canada, completed a novel e-module that replaced a typical didactic-lecture introducing core SICS relevant to ACP conversations. Residents then discussed the skills, followed by practicing them deliberately in a structured role-play simulation with feedback by trained facilitators. Residents completed pre- and post-intervention attitudinal surveys. Results: Residents preferred a combination of learning modalities and welcomed online and virtual teaching methods for learning SICS. Residents reported higher levels of preparedness for engaging in ACP, delivering serious news, and discussing goals of care post-intervention. Residents showed more interest in discussing ACP post-intervention but questioned feasibility for doing so in busy ambulatory clinics. Conclusion: Scalable time-efficient teaching strategies are needed to fill a known education gap. This study demonstrated benefits of incorporating brief e-module learning into residents’ preparation for SICS training using deliberate practice simulation training. The online, interactive virtual training improved resident readiness and comfort for ACP, an area often overlooked in medical education. Moreover, it provides an evidence-informed standardized tool for clinician teachers to seamlessly incorporate into their teaching practices.https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/pmr.2024.0006postgraduate medical educatione-modulessimulationadvance care planningeducational designcommunication |
| spellingShingle | Warren Lewin Helen James Nikolina Mizdrak Ben Kaasa Shira A. Strauss J. Thomas Toguri Pilot Study: Moving Towards a Scalable Intervention for Postgraduate Communication Skills Training Palliative Medicine Reports postgraduate medical education e-modules simulation advance care planning educational design communication |
| title | Pilot Study: Moving Towards a Scalable Intervention for Postgraduate Communication Skills Training |
| title_full | Pilot Study: Moving Towards a Scalable Intervention for Postgraduate Communication Skills Training |
| title_fullStr | Pilot Study: Moving Towards a Scalable Intervention for Postgraduate Communication Skills Training |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pilot Study: Moving Towards a Scalable Intervention for Postgraduate Communication Skills Training |
| title_short | Pilot Study: Moving Towards a Scalable Intervention for Postgraduate Communication Skills Training |
| title_sort | pilot study moving towards a scalable intervention for postgraduate communication skills training |
| topic | postgraduate medical education e-modules simulation advance care planning educational design communication |
| url | https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/pmr.2024.0006 |
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